Americans freed from Iran: What we know

A whirlwind weekend of prisoner exchanges, reduced sanctions and confirmation that Tehran has degraded its nuclear program gives the U.S. and Iran a “rare” chance to start a “new chapter”, U.S. and Iranian leaders said Sunday.

He added that Tehran saw fresh economic sanctions as “illegitimate”.

The United States actually imposed new sanctions Sunday against 11 individuals and entities involved in Iran’s ballistic missile program.

A plane carrying three of the four Americans freed by Iran as part of a prisoner swap has landed in Switzerland, one of the men’s family members and a U.S. State Department official said in tweets Sunday.

Obama described the release of six Iranian-Americans and one Iranian charged in the United States as a “reciprocal, humanitarian gesture” that was a one-time event.

The Obama administration had delayed the step for more than two weeks during tense negotiations to free five American prisoners, according to people familiar with the matter.

“I want to also point out that by working with Iran on this nuclear deal, we were better able to address other issues”. The U.S. also stopped pursuing 14 Iranians for whom they had been seeking extradition.

The lifting of sanctions and the prisoner deal considerably reduce the hostility between Tehran and Washington that has shaped the Middle East since Iran’s Islamic Revolution of 1979.

The complaints against Iran’s defensive and deterrent missile program by the United States as a country which annually sells billions of dollars worth of advanced weaponry to the countries in the region which then use them conventionally in war crimes against Palestinians, Lebanese and most recently Yemeni civilians, is completely void of any legal and moral legitimacy.

Congressman Jeff Duncan displays pictures of Saeed Abedini, Amir Hekmati, Jason Rezaian and Robert Levinson during a House Committee on Foreign Affairs hearing in Washington, D.C. on July 28, 2015.

Moments later, President Obama hailed the nuclear deal, which is being implemented following verification by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) that Iran had restricted its sensitive nuclear activities.

The developments also come at a crucial time in the 2016 presidential race, and Republicans on Sunday took direct aim at Mr. Obama, who they said caved to Iran and chose to negotiate with a regime that supports terrorism.

Mr Netanyahu maintained his strong opposition to the deal, saying: “The Israel policy remains as it was – not to allow Iran to acquire a nuclear weapon”. For a decade the sanctions, imposed in condemnation of Iran’s disputed nuclear programme, had crippled the country’s economy.

The highly complex deal drew a line under a standoff dating back to 2002 marked by failed diplomatic initiatives, ever-tighter sanctions, defiant nuclear expansion by Iran and threats of military action.

A fifth prisoner, identified by US officials as Nosratollah Khosravi-Roodsari, decided not to leave Iran, senior White House officials said. The nuclear pact and warming relations between Washington and Havana are likely to become a big part of his legacy as he completes his final year in office.

They include slashing by two-thirds its uranium centrifuges, reducing its stockpile of uranium – enough before the deal for several bombs – and removing the core of the Arak reactor which could have given Iran weapons-grade plutonium.